Romania's priorities for its Presidency of the EU Council

Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă has presented in Brussels Romania’s priorities for its forthcoming Presidency of the European Union Council (January-June 2019).

Exclusive interview for Radio Romania News: PM Viorica Dăncilă: During the EU Council Presidency that Romania will hold for six months starting from January 1, 2019, we will be facing major challenges, Brexit, the future of the EU after Brexit, challenges related to the multi-annual financial framework. Regarding this, we really want to obtain a political agreement, we want this, and we also have the European Commission's support in this respect. We will also have challenges related to traditional policies, the Common Agricultural Policy or Cohesion Policy. Of course, there are other policies to which we must pay special attention, I refer to the Defense policy, Migration policy, Youth or Innovation.

In a meeting with European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, Head of the Romanian Government explained how judicial legislation has been amended.

Exclusive interview for Radio Romania News: PM Viorica Dăncilă:I have discussed about the Criminal Codes and the Criminal Procedure Code, I have explained that these were the result of debates for almost a year in the Romanian Parliament, they were not adopted, as in 2016, in a single day. Magistrates, judges, all who have an important say on this issue have been consulted. I have asked, if there were any unclear or worrying things, to have them noted punctually, precisely in order to be able to remedy certain things, but I have also explained the necessity of amending the Criminal Code, because we have to transpose the Constitutional Court's decisions as well as European directives in national law and I think that is important that these things are internal and that the rule of law is not affected in any way. I said that we now want, as we wanted from the start, that the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) be lifted until the (Romanian EU Council, n.a) Presidency, we have requested support and I said we will do our utmost to meet the requirements specified in the report.

According to RRA correspondent in Brussels, Amalia Bojescu, the EU continues to monitor the developments in Romania regarding the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism and insists that it is essential not to give up the progress that has already been made.

Christian Wigand, spokesperson for the European Commission, told Radio Romania that the President of the European Commission has encouraged Prime Minister Dăncilă to act in favor of returning to a normal political discourse in Romania, especially with a view to taking over the rotating six-months Presidency of the Council of the European Union, early next year.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei